News

Apple has released a third set of developer betas for iOS 10.3.3, tvOS 10.2.2, and watchOS 3.2.3. As with the second round of betas, these all include only minor updates and bug fixes. iOS 11 is expected to be debuted next week at WWDC, with a public release likely to follow alongside the new iPhone models in the fall.

Fox Networks has updated its Fox Now app for iOS and Apple TV, adding shows from FX and National Geographic in addition to the normal set of Fox content. Available in the U.S., the Fox Now app requires that users already subscribe to an existing pay-TV service, and provides access to up to 500 hours of content across the network’s brands, including current episodes and seasons. The separate FXNow and Nat Geo apps will still be available. Fox Now will also be expanding its platform later this year to a wide range of other devices, including the older third-generation Apple TV. [via Variety]

Apple has added Apple TV to its public beta program, allowing users to test the newest versions of tvOS without a developer account. Starting with tvOS 11, average users will now be able to register to receive the beta versions of iOS, macOS and tvOS a few days after developers get them. Notably Apple still isn’t making its watchOS betas available to the public yet, despite talking up watchOS 4 at yesterday’s event.

Plex has announced the expansion of its Plex DVR feature with support for streaming live TV programming using a supported tuner. Plex DVR, debuted last fall as a premium feature, allowed Plex Pass users to schedule recordings directly into Plex Media Server using an external tuner. Today’s announcement takes this a step further by allowing users to tune into available live TV programming directly through the Plex Media Server into the Plex iOS app, with support for the tvOS version apparently to come. Previously, while users could record programs using the Plex DVR, a program couldn’t be viewed until the recording was finished. The update also adds in-app DVR management to allow users to browse the program guide and manage recordings directly from the Plex iOS app, and the company has also expanded its supported tuners beyond the HDHomeRun, adding several more to the list, including models from Hauppauge, AVerMedia, and DVBLogic.

After expanding the Tablo over-the-air TV DVR to the Apple TV last year, Nuvyyo is releasing the new Tablo Dual starting June 4. The $250 device now includes 64 GB of onboard storage — where the original relied solely on an external hard drive to use DVR functionality — but it still supports the addition of an external hard drive of up to 8 TB for those who find 40 hours of HD recording not to be enough. Tablo Dual is available only in a two-tuner version, and is priced at $50 more than the basic two-tuner Tablo; users looking for a four-tuner model will still need to go with the original Tablo, which remains available in Canada from the company’s web site.

Apple has released a second set of developer betas for iOS 10.3.3, tvOS 10.2.2, and watchOS 3.2.3. As with the first round of betas, these all include only minor updates and bug fixes. iOS 11 is expected to be debuted next week at WWDC, with a public release likely to follow alongside the new iPhone models in the fall.

Apple has added an events page for its upcoming WWDC 2017 Keynote, confirming that the Jun. 5 event will be live streamed, similar to prior years. As usual, Apple will use its own HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology introduced in 2010 to broadcast the event so that users of any relatively recent iOS or macOS device can view it in the Safari web browser. PC users can view the event using Microsoft Edge on Windows 10; older versions of Windows don’t appear to be supported. For Apple TV users, the event will be broadcast in the Apple Events tvOS app; interestingly it also appears that Apple will still be broadcasting the event to second- and third-generation Apple TV devices, suggesting the “Apple Events” channel will simply appear on these now-discontinued models in time for the event. [via MacRumors]

Following a report last week that Apple and Amazon were close to sorting out their differences preventing Amazon Prime from coming to the Apple TV, Buzzfeed News now reveals that the two companies are preparing to make an announcement to this effect at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Citing “sources in a position to know,” the report suggests that not only will Amazon Prime’s video app make its debut on the Apple TV at the June event, but that the set-top box will also see a return to Amazon’s virtual shelves — a logical move considering that Amazon’s rationale for banning sales of the device in 2015 were due to its lack of support for Amazon Prime.

Twitter and the National Football League have announced a new partnership that would have the social media service streaming “uniquely packaged” official NFL content worldwide and on a daily basis throughout the year. Twitter released an Apple TV app last fall, on the heels of a deal with the NFL to stream Thursday Night Football games, and with this new partnership, the NFL and Twitter will now be cooperating to expand NFL content to include video clips that provide game highlights, breaking news, analysis, and “Throwback Thursday” along with a 30-minute live digital show that will air five days per week during the NFL season to cover breaking news, game highlights, and more, as well as live pre-game coverage during the season. [via iPhone in Canada]

Apple and Amazon are close to an agreement which would bring Amazon’s Prime Video app to the Apple TV, according to a new report from Recode. According to people familiar with the two companies, Amazon employees are expecting that the tvOS app could arrive in the third quarter of the year, allowing Amazon Prime Video subscribers to stream TV shows and movies to Apple’s set-top box. Currently, Amazon does provide an iOS app that will allow users to stream to the Apple TV using AirPlay, but it lacks the elegance and simplicity of a native tvOS app. It’s unclear what has prompted this sudden change of heart for Amazon, which has snubbed the Apple TV for almost two years now, beginning with banning sales of the Apple TV and other products competing with its own Fire TV hardware back in Oct. 2015. While many hoped for an Amazon Prime Video app when the new app-enabled fourth-generation Apple TV arrived around the same time, Amazon remained the one major holdout — a decision that, according to Apple, was entirely up to Amazon.

Apple has released a lone fifth beta of tvOS 10.2.1 to registered developers. Featuring a build number of 14W585, the release notes simply state that the update “includes bug fixes, and security improvements in the OS,” but do not specifically list any known or fixed issues.

Apple has added support for searching Spike, Nickelodeon, and Nick. Jr. to the fourth-generation Apple TV’s Universal Search feature, allowing users to call up results from these channels in Siri or by typing queries into the built-in tvOS Search app. A new set of services have also been brought into the fold of Apple’s “TV” app, including Crackle, FilmStruck, and Freeform (the Disney/ABC channel formerly known as ABC Family). Like most of the content services available on the Apple TV, these newest additions are available in the U.S. only. Apple maintains a list on its web site of all of the content channels supported by the Apple TV Universal Search, as well as a separate list of apps supported by the “TV” app. [via AppleInsider]

Only three days after the release of iOS 10.3.2 beta 4, Apple has already rolled out a fifth beta of iOS 10.3.2 to registered developers. The release notes appear to be basically unchanged from the prior beta, listing SiriKit, VPN, and Siri fixes and a few outstanding notes on managed and shared devices, openURL, WebKit, and SOS (which continues to be supported only in India).

Apple has rolled out a third beta of iOS 10.3.2 to its registered developers, along with new betas of watchOS 3.2.2 and tvOS 10.2.1. This latest betas all appear to include only bug fixes and security improvements.

Apple has rolled out a second beta of iOS 10.3.2 to its registered developers, along with new betas of watchOS 3.2.2 and tvOS 10.2.1. This latest iOS beta fixes issues with SiriKit and third-party VPN apps, while the new watchOS and tvOS betas appear to include only bug fixes and security improvements.

Only one day after the public release of iOS 10.3, Apple has already rolled out a new iOS 10 beta to its registered developers. The first new beta, interestingly numbered iOS 10.3.2, has a build number of 14F5065b and according to the release notes includes little other than fixes for SiriKit car commands. New betas of watchOS 3.2.2 and tvOS 10.2.1 were also released to developers today, with similarly sparse release notes indicating only bug fixes and security improvements.

Apple today released tvOS 10.2 for the Apple TV, adding improvements to scrolling behaviour, support for cross-device movie rentals, and improvements to the Apple TV Remote iOS app. The new “rent anywhere” feature debuted last week in iTunes 12.6 and in iOS 10.3 earlier today, now allows users to rent a movie in from iTunes on their Mac or PC or on their iPhone and iPad and watch it on their Apple TV. When scrolling in a long list, an alphabetical selector will now appear at the right side of the TV screen to allow users to scroll more quickly to a section of the list.

Apple has released a sixth set of new betas to developers today — tvOS 10.2 for Apple TV and watchOS 3.2 for Apple Watch. The tvOS 10.2 update boasts improved scrolling support, and watchOS 3.2 brings the screen-disabling Theater Mode to the Apple Watch, among other improvements.

Plex has announced that its new Plex Cloud feature, originally released as a limited beta last fall, is now available to all Plex Pass subscribers. The Plex Cloud service expands the capabilities of the company’s media streaming platform, allowing users to store their movies, TV shows, and other media content in the cloud rather than, or in addition to, running their own Plex Media Server at home. Although Plex Cloud integrated with Amazon Drive when originally launched in beta, the fully-deployed Plex Cloud service instead allows you to simply tie into your choice of three major storage providers — Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive — and use whatever paid storage you have available on these services.